Welcome to my blog- a documentation of my progress, thoughts, challenges and work during the creation of my radio documentary- Seeing Beyond The Scars: How Should We Support Those Who Self-Harm?
Self-harm is something that, sadly, seems to be on a continuous rise amongst young people in the UK, and is a topic that lays very close to my heart. In 2015, my best friend started to self-harm, and at one point, I almost lost her to suicide. When she told me what she’d been doing to herself and her deep thoughts, I froze. I cried, I panicked, I didn’t understand. But more importantly and more significantly, an overwhelming sense of fear hit me, that made me ask myself- how am I going to help her through this? According to NHS figures, over half of suicides have a history of self-harm, and I wasn’t about to let my friend be part of that statistic.
Finding my angle
I found myself replaying that memory with my best friend, and I saw an angle to the story I felt had been very under covered in the media. My documentary will be one that looks at how we should be supporting those who self-harm, in order to help family and friends increase their understanding and be able to better help somebody going through this.
At that time I felt there was a real lack of advice and direction for friends of those who self-harm, and very little information on how to actually help somebody through. When trying to get through this stage in their lives, there’s various suggestions for apps, websites, counsellors and professionals- but there are so many reasons why people might not want these, and may in fact benefit just from the comfort of someone they love and trust.